5.12 — The Kit, the Plan and the Drill

Everything in Part 5 reduces to three things you can own, and this chapter is how to get them in one weekend.

9.2 has the full kit list. This is the version that covers natural disasters specifically, and the plan and the drill matter more than the kit.

The kit

Two kits, and the distinction matters.

The go-bag: what you take when you leave

One bag per adult, packed, by the door or in the cupboard nearest the exit.

Water for a day, and a way to treat more.

Food that needs no cooking, for two days.

Torch — head torch — and spare batteries.

Power bank, charged, and cables.

First aid kit, and two weeks of any prescription medication.

Copies of documents, in something waterproof, plus cash.

Phone numbers on paper.

A whistle (5.2).

Mask — a proper particulate one, which covers smoke, ash and dust (5.7, 5.9).

Change of clothing, sturdy shoes, and something warm and waterproof.

Gloves.

And anything specific: baby formula and nappies, pet food, hearing aid batteries, spectacles, a spare inhaler or autoinjector.

The test: can you pick it up and be out of the door in sixty seconds?

The stay-kit: what you need if you shelter

In a cupboard, larger, not portable.

Water — three days minimum, two weeks if you can (5.11).

Food for two weeks, of things you eat, rotated.

A means of cooking without electricity, used only where ventilated (6.2).

Battery or wind-up radio.

Candles are not recommended — battery lanterns instead, because open flames after an earthquake or gas leak are a serious hazard.

A means of turning off water, gas and electricity, and the knowledge of where they are.

Sanitation supplies: a lined bucket with a lid, absorbent material, and sanitiser.

Tools: a wrench for the gas valve, a knife, tape, rope, plastic sheeting.

And blankets.

The plan

Free, takes fifteen minutes, and matters more than everything above.

Six questions, answered out loud with everybody in the household, and written down.

What is our actual hazard? (5.1.)

What is our trigger? If X happens, we do Y, immediately, without re-deciding.

Where do we go? Two places: one near, one far. And two routes to each.

Where do we meet if we are separated? One place near home, one outside the immediate area.

Who is our out-of-area contact? One person, not local, whom everybody knows to call or message. Local networks fail; long-distance ones frequently work.

And who is responsible for whom? Who collects the child from school. Who gets the elderly relative. Who takes the pets. Who grabs the bag.

Write it on one page. Put a copy in each go-bag and one on the fridge.

The drill

The part everybody skips and the part that makes it work.

Because the plan you have never rehearsed is a document, and under stress you will execute what you have practised rather than what you have read (1.1).

Four drills, none of which takes long.

The evacuation drill. **Once. **Pick up the bags and walk out of the house, timed. You will discover something — a bag that is too heavy, a door that sticks, a route that does not work, somebody who does not know where anything is.

Drop, cover, hold on (5.2). **Once, with everybody. A minute.

The utilities drill. **Everybody in the house finds the water stopcock, the gas valve and the fuse box, and knows how to operate them. Fifteen minutes.

And the walk. **Walk the evacuation route once, in daylight, and time it. If you are on a coast, walk to high ground (5.3). If you are in a flood area, walk to where the ground rises.

**Do these once a year. Attach them to something you already do — the start of the monsoon, a birthday, a festival.

The specific things people forget

Nine, from post-disaster reviews.

Medication. Two weeks of everything, and the prescription itself.

Spectacles. A spare pair changes what somebody can do.

Cash. Small denominations. Card systems fail.

Documents. Photographed and stored somewhere reachable without your phone.

Pets. Carrier, food, and a plan for where they are permitted.

Baby and infant needs.

Anybody with mobility difficulties. A stair evacuation plan for somebody who cannot use stairs is a real problem and it needs a real answer, arranged in advance with neighbours.

Shoes by the bed (5.2).

And the mental one: the decision, made now, that you will not go back for anything (1.3).

The neighbours

From 1.4, and it belongs here as an action rather than as a principle.

Know three names.

Know who on your street or floor is elderly, alone, disabled, or has small children.

And agree one thing with one neighbour: that you will check on each other.

In every disaster review, the rescues in the first hours were done by people who were already there.

The one weekend

Concretely.

**Saturday morning: build the two kits. A shopping trip and an hour of packing.

Saturday afternoon: photograph documents, write down phone numbers, find the utilities shut-offs and show everybody.

Sunday morning: the fifteen-minute plan conversation, written on one page.

Sunday afternoon: the four drills, and a walk of the evacuation route.

And then you are done. Review it once a year.

Which is the whole point of Part 5: this is a weekend, once, and then it is behind you rather than in front of you.

What Part 5 established

Almost every hazard warns you (5.1), and the failure is what people do with the warning.

The trigger decided in advance is the mechanism that beats the delay.

Wind goes down, water goes up.

The second event — the aftershock, the second wave, the second half of the cyclone, the returning fire — catches people who thought it was over.

Moving water is far more dangerous than anybody's intuition (5.4).

And the highest-value preparations are unglamorous: strapping furniture to a wall, clearing a gutter, knowing where the high ground is, and knocking on an older neighbour's door.

What to do with this page

Two kits: one you carry, one you shelter with.

One page with six answers, on the fridge and in the bags.

Four drills, once a year, attached to something you already do.

Walk the evacuation route once, in daylight, and time it.

And agree with one neighbour that you will check on each other.

Next: Part 6 — the crises that come from things people built.